Certificate technology and certificate-based access to systems is prevalent and existent within the industry today. However, there is a present need for a specific deployment of the certificate-based access method over multiple different types of access vehicles which, for example, enables users to utilize a certificate that is stored within a smart card to access a host system through a browser, such that when the user accesses the application on the server, the application requires that the card and certificate be present for authentication of the individual user, and concurrently allows systems which need access to applications on a server to use a certificate stored on that system for authentication of itself to the server.